Table of Contents

Preface.................................................................................... .................2
Introduction.......................................................................... ...................3
How Did It All Begin?.................................................................... ..........5
The 1890s............................................................................................... ..8
The 1900s............................................................................................ ...13
The 1910s............................................................................................ ...21
The 1920s............................................................................................ ...28
The 1930s............................................................................................ ...32
The 1940s............................................................................................ ...36
The 1950s............................................................................................ ...44
Beyond The Triangle........................................................................ .....50
Appendix A.................................................................... ........................55
Appendix B......................................................................... ...................56
Appendix C......................................................................... ...................57

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 Version 0.70 - (7/21/09)

Preface
A side benefit of helping to plan the Boston Technical High School Class of 1957’s very successful
50th anniversary reunion was my becoming interested in the history of the school, known originally as
Mechanic Arts High School. Previously, I knew nothing of its background aside from the most basic
facts – the original building opened in 1893 and was torn down in the early 1960s. But some
interesting stories told by a classmate motivated me to search for more information and to write down
what I found.

I found a great deal on the World Wide Web, primarily in the collections of the Boston Globe, the
Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, and the Internet Archive. Also very useful were books,
magazines, and educational publications made available online by the Boston Public Library, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other institutions.

But my single most valuable source was The City of Boston Archives in West Roxbury. The school
staff accumulated historical information for many years and eventually turned it over to the archives
for safekeeping, a very wise move. This information included Boston school department reports,
personal correspondence and memoranda from headmasters, school yearbooks, many (unfortunately,
deteriorating) scrapbooks of newspaper clippings probably assembled by school secretaries,
photographs of the school and its students, and many bound copies of the student written magazine,
The Artisan.

Setting down this part of the school’s story has given me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction,
but the job is not yet finished. The information I’ve already uncovered has raised more questions.
Many of the files in Boston’s archives still need to be read, digested, and documented. Plus, the story
needs to brought up to the present - how the school changed after its 1960 move from the Back Bay to
Roxbury, after it became a coeducational school, and after it was renamed the John D. O’Bryant
School of Mathematics and Science in 1992. However, I will leave those updates to people who were
connected to the school during those years.

I’ve written this story primarily to be one I would enjoy reading. My aim has been to make it not
dry or scholarly, yet with enough detail to answer the Five Ws (and one H) of journalism – Who?,
What?, When?, Where?, Why? and How? I hope I’ve succeeded. I also hope its readers will enjoy the
story. If they don’t, however, I hope they will at least learn a few new things about the school.

My gratitude goes to the people who made this story possible. They include the teachers, staff, and
administrators who built, taught in, operated, and maintained the school; the students who contributed
to and benefitted from it; the people who cared enough to save a record for the future; Karl Bossi ’56,
for his editorial help; and my ’57 classmate Nick Reveliotty, who initially infected me with the school
history bug. I also want to thank the good folks at the City of Boston Archives, who have been most
helpful in making school information available to me. Thank you all.

I dedicate this story of a proud institution to today’s students of the John D. O’Bryant School of
Mathematics and Science as they carry on the Mechanic Arts and Boston Technical traditions of
perseverance, excellence, and accomplishment.

Tom Hayden
Chelmsford, MA
May 2009
Email: bostontechhistory@yahoo.com

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 Introduction

Technician, world famous artist, professional football player, engineer, small

business owner, aviation pioneer, physician, police commissioner, author,
military member, firefighter, plumbing inspector, lawyer, composer, psychologist,
surveyor, high school teacher, architect, Olympic figure skater, priest, admiral,
investment banker, historian, large company executive, police detective, chef,
professional singer, US ambassador, college professor, politician and
photographer. These are but a few of the accomplishments of young men who
attended Mechanic Arts High School, later known as Boston Technical High
School. This is the story of that school – the building and its people – during its
years at the corner of Belvidere and Dalton streets in the Back Bay section of
Boston.

Before I started writing this story a year ago I used Google to search for “no
smoking in the triangle”. It found no results. As I’d suspected, the phrase didn’t
mean a thing to anyone other than students who had attended Mechanic Arts
High School or Boston Technical High School during those years in the Back
Bay. For those students, however, it was one of the first rules of the school they
learned.

The Buff and Blue Key, a student handbook, noted in 1929:

The duty of the Student Council’s Outside Patrol, is “to prevent smoking and
disorder on the part of students outside the school and within the ‘triangle’
bounded by the curbing of the inside sidewalk of Huntington Avenue,
Massachusetts Avenue, and Boylston. The displaying of a cigarette or other
smoking material within this area shall be considered the same as smoking.”

The handbook also included the following map of the area, which clearly
showed landmarks inside and outside of the “triangle” so there would be no
misunderstanding on the part of students.

3
4
 How Did It All Begin?

In June 1893, grammar schools throughout Boston received a letter

announcing the planned opening of a new school, Mechanic Arts High School
(MAHS). The new high school was to offer a three year program whose
graduates “will be well fitted either to continue their studies in some higher
scientific or technical institution, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
or to take up some chosen mechanical trade, or to engage in general business.”

Clearly, this was intended to be a special school and not merely another
general purpose academic institution built to accommodate an increasing city
population. And just as clearly, much time and effort went into the project prior
to its announcement. But where did the idea for such a school originate? Who
was responsible for the planning that translated concept into reality? What
obstacles were encountered? How was the school’s name chosen? To learn these
answers, we need to look at the decades before 1893.

In the middle of the 19th century an educational movement advocating the

introduction of manual training into schools took hold in Europe and the United
States. Educators who supported this movement perceived a number of benefits
from manual training. They felt it overcame a scheme of education in purely
literary high schools believed to promote laziness in some students. They
believed it replaced the practical training which had been given to children by
their families back when most people lived on farms. They saw it as a way of
providing students with systematic work designed to improve their intellectual
powers. They felt it developed pupils’ creative abilities as well as their
acquisitive powers. And they considered manual training to be an effective way
of connecting with a large number of students who were just not engaged by the
purely academic subjects or teaching methods of more traditional high schools.

Russia’s Imperial Technical School in Moscow became a pioneer in manual

training instruction. It was the first school to successfully apply the laboratory
method of instruction to the ‘mechanic arts’, a term used in the 19th century to
describe engineering and other mechanical fields of expertise. After seeing a
demonstration of that school’s methods at the Philadephia Centennial Exposition
in 1876, John Runkle, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
formed a School of Mechanic Arts at MIT. His goal was to improve the
education of civil and mechanical engineers by combining theory with practice.
This successful initiative was later replicated at a number of United States
colleges.

5
 Over time, manual training following the Russian model was also introduced
at the high school level across the USA. In Boston, the driving force behind the
establishment of such a school was the city’s Superintendent of Public Schools,
Dr. Edwin P. Seaver. In 1883, ten years prior to the opening of MAHS, Dr.
Seaver recommended “that there be added to our public-school system one
manual training school, thoroughly equipped for its work, occupying a place in
the system side by side with the high schools, and open, under suitable
conditions, to boys of fourteen years of age, and upwards.” This statement was
made, Seaver said later, primarily to serve as a starting point for serious
discussion and to attract public attention. Although Dr. Seaver’s suggestion was
a novel one in 1883, by the time activities had progressed from mere discussion
to actual planning for the school, other US cities had already established schools
devoted to the study of the mechanic arts.

In 1889, Superintendent Seaver issued A Plan for a Mechanic Arts High

School in the City of Boston, which specified the school’s needs in great detail.

⋅ The requirements for admission to the three year program were to be “a

grammar-school diploma or the equivalent examination, age not less than
thirteen, and a good character.”

⋅ His plan called for a 25 hour school week consisting of 10 hours of shop
work (carpentry, wood turning, pattern making, molding, casting, forging,
and machine shop); 10 hours of book work (English, mathematics, science
or a foreign language); and 5 hours of drawing (primarily mechanical
drawing, but also free-hand drawing). A 2 hour per week session of
military drill was also considered for the program.

⋅ It required that a few of the tools to be at each forge were one anvil (84
pounds), four pairs of tongs, a poker, a rake, and a shovel.

⋅ In the carpentry shop, some of the tools specified to be provided at each

bench were a jack plane, a block plane, a 20” cross cut saw, a bit brace, a
nail set, a bench brush, and a set (1/4”, ½”, ¾”, 1”, 2”) of chisels.

Seaver’s plan was based on an initial class size of 72 students and a

maximum capacity of 216 students. Since the school would not need to
accommodate three classes until its third year, only one classroom, a drawing
room, and a wood-working room would be required when the school opened.
Another classroom was planned to be added in each of the next two years, along
with the blacksmith shop, the machine shop and a second mechanical drawing
room.

6
 Even before MAHS was built, though, there was confusion regarding its
primary mission. Dr. Seaver attempted to address the issue by stating
emphatically that “It is not a trade school”, noting that the mechanic arts involve
principles, while the trades are “merely details of application”. MAHS would
develop general mechanical skill, he said, but “would not make its pupils
finished artisans in any one trade”. The confusion over the goals of the new
school was very slow to dissipate, however, requiring its headmasters to repeat
the same basic message many times over the years.

In his plan, Dr. Seaver strongly recommended that the name of the school be
“The Mechanic Arts High School”. Although “Manual Training School” had
come to be the name used almost exclusively for such schools throughout the
country, Seaver believed the name he proposed to be much more truly
descriptive of the aim of the school and the level at which it operated. He wrote,
“It stands above grammar schools and side by side with the Latin high schools
and the English high schools.” At the time, so-called Latin (or classical) schools
generally prepared students for the learned professions, while English schools
instructed their pupils for lives in the commercial world. In Dr. Seaver’s opinion,
a mechanic arts high school would prepare students whose future needs would
be primarily an experimental knowledge of the leading mechanic arts.

7
 The 1890s

At the beginning of the 1890s, work on Mechanic Arts High School forged
ahead, in accordance with Dr. Seaver plan’s. In June 1891 the City of Boston
purchased a 21,950 sq. ft. lot for the school building at the corner of Belvidere
and Dalton Streets in the Back Bay for $40,388.

Edmund March Wheelwright, Boston’s city architect, was commissioned to

design the original MAHS building. One of the most important local architects
of the period, Wheelwright’s other projects include the Longfellow Bridge over
the Charles River, Horticultural Hall, the Forest Hills elevated railway station,
Boston Fire Department headquarters (now the Pine Street Inn), and the
Lampoon Building near Harvard Square in Cambridge. He considered the
MAHS building to be significant enough to fill almost an entire chapter of his
1901 book School Architecture with plans, photographs, and descriptions of it.

Norcross Brothers Contractors and Builders of Worcester, prominent builder

of many well known American structures such as Symphony Hall, Trinity
Church and Copley Square’s Public Library in Boston, New York’s Pennsylvania
Station, and the Rhode Island State Capitol, constructed the initial MAHS
building. Construction costs for the building itself were $148,565. With
furnishings adding another $32,783, the total cost (including land) of the project
rose to $181,348, equivalent to more than $5.4M in 2009 dollars.

Prior to its opening, MAHS received a good deal of publicity. A March 1892
Boston Globe article gave the public a preliminary look at the new school. It
called the building “most imposing in architectural beauty”, noting that the base
was to be of granite, with upper stories consisting of alternating layers of red
brick and sandstone. The article also stated that: “The whole will be lighted by
electricity”, “The tower will be 112 feet high and 23 feet square”, and “The
Third floor was to contain a drawing library and “a large, well appointed
gymnasium”. As its students know, this last feature was never built.

In June 1893, at the same time that the opening of MAHS was announced to
Boston’s grammar schools, Dr. Frank A. Hill was selected to be its first
headmaster. Originally from Biddeford, ME, Hill was a graduate of Bowdoin
College and a well known educator, having served as the principal of several
high schools in Maine and Massachusetts. Frank Hill would lead MAHS only
until May 1894, when he resigned to become the Secretary of the Massachusetts
State Board of Education.

8
 Mechanics Arts High School admitted its first students in September 1893.
Salary records for that month show that its initial faculty consisted of the
headmaster (at $315 per month), two junior masters (at $144 per month each)
and two instructors (at $140 per month each). In October another instructor and
one temporary instructor ($4 per day) were added.

Many years later, people recalled that the school opened in an unfinished
building filled with more than 100 workmen and the sounds of their saws and
hammers. For the first three months, each school day was limited to three hours;
only one large room, divided into two classrooms, was available for school
purposes. Although more classrooms and a woodworking shop became available
later in the school year, it was estimated that only four months of satisfactory
instruction was provided during that entire period.

Because of turmoil caused by construction within the building, the school

acquired a bad reputation, causing applications for admission to plummet from
156 in 1893, to 67 in 1894 and 69 in 1895. However, once the entire facility was
up and running during the 1895-96 school year, admissions rebounded to 155 in
1896 and reached 189 by 1899.


Although Edwin P. Seaver and Frank A. Hill made significant contributions

to the school, no one is more closely identified with MAHS during its early
years than Charles W. Parmenter, who replaced Hill as headmaster in 1894 and
remained in that position for 29 years, until his retirement in 1923.


In September 1894, the School Board’s Committee on Manual Training

requested Headmaster Parmenter “to arrange the course of study so as to
provide, if possible, for the fitting of the pupils for the Institute of Technology in
three years.” And “to arrange for instruction in French immediately”. It
authorized Parmenter “to admit non-residents to the school under the rules of the
School Board.” And, it directed “That no smoking be allowed in the Mechanic
Arts High School”. It is not known if this initial no smoking rule extended as far
as the infamous “triangle”.


MAHS graduated its first class, 55 students, in June 1896. Only one year later
the Superintendent of Schools wanted to know what had become of those
graduates. The headmaster dutifully reported that 14 were enrolled at MIT, four

9
were enrolled at other colleges, six were salesmen, 18 were engaged in various
mechanical pursuits, one was a wood-working teacher, five were working in
architect or engineer offices, and one was on the school ship Enterprise at the
Massachusetts Nautical Training School (currently known as the Massachusetts
Maritime Academy). The status of two graduates was unknown.

The remaining four members of that first class were listed as being in the
“fourth year” – one at English High School and three at MAHS. At Mechanic
Arts the fourth year was an optional extension for graduates of the three year
program. Three year diplomas were later discontinued; four years of study
became a requirement for graduation.


School committee records show that a lack of funding caused the initial 1893
building to be built without some of the features specified in Dr. Seaver’s
original plan. In fact, it wasn’t until the completion of an addition in 1899 that
the building came substantially in line with those plans. This addition contained
a library, the headmaster’s office, chemistry and physics labs, a classroom, a
drawing room, a photographic dark room, and a toilet room for women teachers
(Yes, MAHS would have women teachers.) In the basement were a totally new
forge shop, a janitor’s room and a bicycle storage room. The new addition cost
$57,258 and furnishings cost $6,964. Despite this expenditure, however, there
was still no sign of that promised “large, well appointed gymnasium”!

Prior to the MAHS 1893 opening, its forge shop was thought to be what
would be called today “state of the art”. However, it was soon found to be
“entirely unsatisfactory”. The new forge shop provided in the 1899 addition was
called by the Boston Globe the “largest and best equipped of its kind in the
United States”.

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 The shop was 91’ long by 41’ wide and featured 36 forges and anvils, plus
associated equipment. It was also equipped with a raised area of 36 tablet chairs
arranged around an instructor’s forge and anvil for use in demonstration lessons.
This configuration was most likely the same one in use until the building closed
in 1960.


In 1897, a number of girls applied for admission to MAHS, which brought

the issue to the attention of the school committee. A report from the school
stated that “It may be claimed that much of the work now done in this school is
as valuable for girls as for boys. … This opinion did not prevail, however, when
the initial steps were taken which led to the establishment of the school, and the
building has been erected and equipped with special reference to the needs of
boys.” Noting that even though much of the school work could be successfully
accomplished by many girls, the report stated “only girls of remarkable physical
strength and exceptional tastes and aptitudes would find pleasure or profit in the
forge-shop or machine shop.”

This report stressed the difficulty of providing suitable accommodations for

girls, especially in light of the high likelihood that MAHS would not even be
able to handle all the boys expected to apply for admission. It concluded, “From
every point of view, therefore, it appears to be clearly impracticable, however
desirable it may be, to admit girls to the Mechanic Arts High School at this
time.” The school committee agreed with the MAHS report, effectively shutting
the door on the issue. It would be roughly another 100 years before the school
would admit young women.


11
 It was reported in later years that more than 100 boys in the initial 1893 class
were drawn from English High School, which caused anxiety among its teachers
because of possible job losses. But, admissions to English returned to their
normal levels within two years. And the total number of students enrolled in
MAHS during the rest of the decade also rose steadily:

Sept 1895 160

Sept 1896 237
Sept 1897 330
Sept 1898 412
Sept 1899 456


N.C. Wyeth, later to become a world famous artist and one of America’s
favorite illustrators, was admitted as a special non-resident student in 1897. (See
Appendix E for more information.)


In a letter written 50 years after his graduation Carl L. Mittell ’97 provided
the history of the school colors. He recalled that the Class of 1896 had decided
the colors should be red and gray, the same as MIT’s colors. But the Class of
1897, “with surprising foresight, did not ‘cotton’ to the idea of being labeled
only as a prep school for M.I.T.” and, thus, chose Buff and Blue.


In summary, although the 1890s began with high hopes for Mechanic Arts
High School, the decade was filled with numerous obstacles and great frustration
for the school. But perseverance overcame the problems that arose; the school
opened and made significant progress. Much of the credit for these
accomplishments must go to Mr. Parmenter, who devoted considerable extra
time to school-related work. For example, every summer beginning in 1895 he
spent most of his vacation on projects such as making plans for equipment for
the first wood-turning shop, supervising the installation of equipment in the first
machine shop, planning for the 1899 addition, and overseeing the installation of
equipment in new laboratories.

12
 The 1900s

As improbable as it may seem to us today, the 1900s would present MAHS

with even more challenges than the 1890s did. The key issues remained its
building and its mission.

The 1899 building addition solved an immediate need for more space, but it
soon became apparent that this was only a temporary solution to the school’s
overall needs. In September 1901 there were 550 students enrolled, with
predictions of 720 for 1902 and 900 in 1903. The school day had to be extended
to accommodate the extra students. While shop and lab facilities were adequate,
there was a desperate shortage of space for academics. The school committee
recommended that either a large addition to MAHS or a new building in the
vicinity be built. And in February 1902 the Committee on Manual Training
issued an order that the schoolhouse commissioners be urged “to provide
additional accommodations for the Mechanic Arts High School at the earliest
possible date.”

The last six months of 1902 proved to be a very busy period for city school
bureaucrats. First, the Committee on Manual Training sent another shot across
the bow of those commissioners with a June 1902 order for them “to procure at
once a suitable site for the future erection of a large building for the academic
departments of this school.” The commissioners recommended approval of this
order by the Boston School Committee, which took place in September.

Next, in October the MAHS headmaster and the Superintendent of Schools

sent a letter to the Committee on Schoolhouses laying out the need for a large
extension to the school, listing the features it should contain, and urging
immediate action on construction of the addition.

But the schoolhouse committee unexpectedly sent the following order to the
Committee on Manual Training: “That the school committee establish a
Mechanic Arts High School in the Roxbury District, instead of increasing the
present Mechanic Arts High School.” Records don’t indicate why the Committee
on Schoolhouses changed direction so radically, but they do show that, after
considering the operational costs of one enlarged school vs. two separate
schools, it changed positions again. Finally, in December 1902 they
recommended that MAHS be enlarged, a recommendation which was adopted.

Even before the project’s December approval, the original building’s

architect, Edmund March Wheelwright, now of Wheelwright and Haven, was

13
selected in November 1902 to design the addition. From then until July 1903
various sites were studied and 11 preliminary sketches were submitted to the
city. In July the Schoolhouse Commission approved the selected site and sketch,
which set in motion the formal design phase of the project.

By July 1904 drawings and specifications were essentially complete. The

new building would provide 22 classrooms for 40 pupils each, four classrooms
for 80 students, and an assembly hall seating 1100. The headmaster expected
work to resume at this time, but he was to be disappointed once again. As he
later explained to a friend, this delay was to permit work to advance on a high
school in Charlestown. The MAHS expansion was put on hold until the spring of
1905.

In May 1905 the architects were told to restart work on the drawings and
specifications; some rework was required because of building code changes
concerned with fireproofing. But even though revised drawings were submitted
to the city in July 1905, construction could still not begin! The proposed
building, planned to be 100’ high, was suddenly found to exceed an 80’ height
limit that had been established after the original drawings were prepared.

Finally, in November 1905 the building was granted an exemption from the
height restriction. However, work still did not begin; the election of a new mayor
caused the outgoing administration to essentially ignore the project. Yet there
was reason to be optimistic. After discussing the school’s expansion with the
mayor-elect, Superintendent of Schools Dr. George H. Conley, assured Mr.
Parmenter that work would commence shortly after the new mayor took office.

Unfortunately, Dr. Conley was not able to continue his support for the school
as he died unexpectedly shortly thereafter. Conley had supervised MAHS for ten
years before his election as superintendent and the headmaster considered Dr.
Conley to be his closest professional friend. In a personal letter, Mr. Parmenter
called the death “a calamity to the schools, and a personal loss to me that is
difficult to overstate.” He also noted that he would now be required to spend
considerable time educating the “new men” about issues that Dr. Conley
“understood perfectly.”

Boston’s new mayor was John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, grandfather of

U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Parmenter would later tell a friend that the
mayor caused him “much anxiety and annoyance” over the next two years.

After nearly five years of discussions, votes, orders, recommendations,

decisions, changes, designs, drawings, studies, delays, and redesigns, the bidding

14
process for construction was finally opened in June 1906. Success at last?
Hardly! In July all the bids received were rejected for reasons of cost, and the
allocated funding was used instead for the construction of other schools.

Mr. Parmenter continued his strong advocacy for the school extension as well
as his plans to educate the “new men.” Some of the arguments he used were:

⋅ The school’s regular session had always been 45 minutes longer than any
other high school

⋅ Starting in 1905 an extra hour had been added to the schedule of 403
students; 156 were required to stay for an extra two hours, to 4:20pm.
This change prompted many bitter complaints from parents.

⋅ It had been necessary to assign three students to each locker.

⋅ The lack of an assembly hall was proving to be seriously detrimental to

the operation of the school.

⋅ It had become necessary to use the chemistry and physics labs in the 1899
addition as classrooms.

⋅ Since 1901 it had been necessary to turn away some applicants for
admission. This occurred in spite of lower than normal demand for spaces
caused by public knowledge of the extra long school day and the
unsatisfactory conditions in the building.

⋅ The proposed per pupil cost of the MAHS extension was far less than the
cost of high schools in Dorchester, East Boston, South Boston, and
Charlestown.

⋅ The projected savings from a proposed elimination of the third story of the
extension would be minimal. The third story would cost $175 per pupil,
while the cost of Charlestown High was $545 per pupil.

⋅ Although the excellent work done at MAHS had positively influenced the
course of study in similar schools in other cities, it had not been able to
grow to meet its own needs since 1901.

15
 In June 1907, almost one year after bids were rejected, the school committee
appropriated $500,000 for the new building project. Using essentially the same
plans and specifications completed in July 1905, bids for construction were
obtained and a contract was signed in early August 1907. Work began the very
next day! Apparently following a forge shop maxim, the headmaster decided to
“Strike while the iron is hot!”

But the mayor had other plans. The Fitzgerald administration had quickly
developed a reputation for corruption and graft. As a result, the state appointed a
Finance Commission in 1907 to look into the city’s finances and management.
This commission quickly unearthed some very serious abuses. In what seems to
have been an attempt to divert the attention of that commission, “Honey Fitz”
asked it to advise him on the wisdom of the expenditure for the MAHS
expansion.

And, after earlier assuring the school committee that he would approve the
building contract, Fitzgerald refused to approve it – only three weeks after it had
been signed!, The mayor told local newspapers that the reason for his actions
was that the project was using non-union, non-American labor.

Fitzgerald’s refusal to approve the contract had immediate and serious

consequences. Part of the building expansion project called for substantial
reconstruction of the basement floors in the original building, as well as a
rework of its heating and plumbing systems. The building had been erected on
land created as part of the 19th century reclamation of Boston’s Back Bay and,
over the years, the basement floors had settled badly. In the three weeks before
the mayor stopped the project, contractors had already torn up the floors,
removed toilets, and disabled the heating and ventilation equipment.

Headmaster Parmenter was called back from summer vacation to cope with
this latest crisis. It was necessary for him to cut through considerable red tape in
order to restart this essential work and minimize any impact on classes, which
began in September 1907. But once more the school was forced to operate with
a large crew of workmen on site and to adopt a shortened school day.

“Honey Fitz” was nothing if not perseverant; he had one last card to play. In
November he appointed a select committee consisting of the presidents of
Harvard and Boston College and a former president of MIT to provide guidance
to the Finance Commission on the advisability of enlarging MAHS. In an
appearance before this committee, the mayor vigorously protested against the
proposed expenditure of some $500,000 until better provisions had been made
for the city’s elementary schools. He also stated his belief that MAHS was

16
taking care only of the grammar schools’ better students and felt that if district
high schools were equipped to teach MAHS’ subjects, students would eagerly go
to those schools. A newspaper reported at the time that Superintendent of School
Stratton D. Brooks shared the mayor’s beliefs.

The mayor’s self-picked committee, however, turned out to be no mere

rubber stamp. They conducted a thorough investigation of MAHS’ needs, and
spent considerable time going from room to room in the school. Some of the
surprising things they learned firsthand were: some students had to return to the
building after normal school hours to be able to use the machine shops; 50 boys
were using a lumber storage room as a classroom; two boys were sometimes
assigned to one desk; and a chemistry lab was being used as a classroom.

The committee handed Fitzgerald a severe setback, deciding in only six

weeks that “this need is more urgent than that of any other specific addition to
the school system of Boston” and strongly urging that work on the project
proceed without delay. Game, set, match – Mechanic Arts!

To make this victory even sweeter for Mr. Parmenter, Mayor Fitzgerald was
defeated for election that same month by a large margin.

Construction resumed again for the last time and the addition was finally
occupied early in January 1909. During those last 12 months of the project, 300
first year students were housed in an annex set up in the Rice School, on
Dartmouth St.. This would not be the last time an annex would be used for the
school’s freshmen.

17
 But the problems which had plagued the school troubles weren’t over yet. In
the summer of 1908, during the midst of construction, the school committee
commissioned Prof. Arthur L. Williston of New York’s Pratt Institute to study
MAHS. Williston, a former principal of Boston’s Wentworth Institute, reported
back in November 1908 with twelve recommendations, the most significant of
which were:

⋅ Abandon all college preparatory work.

⋅ Change the name to “Mechanic Arts School of Boston”.

⋅ Drop all foreign languages and give pupils a more perfect command of
English.

⋅ Alter the curriculum to reduce the time devoted to pure mathematics and
science; make the instruction more practical.

⋅ Furnish all shops and school labs with equipment of the same type that
would be found in industrial establishments.

Headmaster Parmenter, not surprisingly, disagreed with much of Williston’s

report. It appears that he also interpreted some of the recommendations as
implicit criticisms of his leadership. Though he concurred with increasing the
emphasis on the mechanical departments and with making the academic work
more practical, Parmenter felt that the other recommendations would make “the
institution cease immediately to be a high school”, one of its founding concepts.
He proposed, as an alternative, a revised course of study which offered students
a choice of a more industrial curriculum starting in the third year.

However, the school committee didn’t support Parmenter’s proposal and in

September 1909 it ordered that pupils entering MAHS be notified that the
school’s course of study would be modified to “prepare its pupils for industrial
efficiency and not for entrance to college or higher technical institutions.” The
headmaster was apparently blindsided by this proclamation, which was delivered
personally to him by the Superintendent of Schools on the first day of the 1909
school year. Mr. Parmenter wrote that he spent much of the rest of the school
year trying to: provide information on the proposed changes; reply to questions
for which he had no answers; defend himself for decisions he hadn’t made and
for which he wasn’t responsible while at the same time trying not to seem

18
discourteous to his superiors (who had made the decisions and were
responsible).

In later years, Headmaster Parmenter wrote a summary of the development of

MAHS and included brief descriptions of his work-related summer activities. As
he had done in the 1890s, he spent the majority of every summer vacation in the
1900s working on school-related projects – from “bringing the need of the
Extension to the attention of officials”, in 1901; to work related to preliminary
drawings, in 1903; to studying iron and mining industries in Ohio and Michigan,
in 1906; and working on the Extension and handling Prof. Williston’s inquiries
in 1908.

Somehow, though, Mechanic Arts still managed to conduct its business of

teaching and learning during this tumultuous decade. A few facts provide a
glimpse of life at the school then.

⋅ In 1900 the Committee on Manual Training reconfirmed five previous

votes limiting the headmaster’s purchasing authority for incidental
supplies to $2 per item and $50 per year. He was also required to provide
a voucher for any item costing more than $1.

⋅ The 1901 school committee annual report listed two women teachers at
MAHS; by 1904 there were four. All taught languages.

⋅ In September 1904 it was ordered that wire netting be placed on the

exterior of the MAHS building “in order to prevent the annoyance caused
by the nesting of pigeons on this building”. [I don’t remember seeing any
netting during my years there, but I certainly remember the pigeons. TLH]

⋅ Also in September 1904, a Mechanic Arts Evening High School was

established, with Mr. Parmenter as its headmaster.

⋅ In October 1904 the school department turned down a request by MAHS

for “one standard dictionary of the English Language”.

⋅ Mechanic Arts won a Gold Medal at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair for
its portion of an exhibit by various Boston schools.

⋅ In November 1905 newspapers reported the death of Mattapan MAHS

student Winchester Putnam. Complaints by parents of other pupils who
had come home sick from the school prompted an investigation into

19
 whether the cause was formaldehyde in milk sold at Mechanic Arts.
Unfortunately, records do not indicate the results of this investigation.

⋅ In September 1906, a fourth year was added to the requirements to earn a

diploma.

⋅ An outside telephone connection was installed in 1906.

⋅ The first edition of the school’s magazine, The Artisan, was published in
March 1907. At the time it was a monthly publication priced at 10 cents
per copy or 75 cents for the school year.

⋅ The total number of students enrolled at Mechanic Arts continued to rise:

Sept 1900 493

Sept 1901 572
Sept 1902 652 (the # of first year students was limited to 288)
Sept 1903 695 “
Sept 1904 730 “
Sept 1905 754 “
Sept 1906 752 “

One of those 572 students at MAHS in 1901 was a non-resident, the son of
famed African-American educator Booker T. Washington. Records do not show
how Washington, the so-called “Wizard of Tuskegee”, and Headmaster
Parmenter became acquainted, but the father did request the headmaster to admit
Booker T. Washington Jr. The Boston School Board granted its permission based
on the senior Washington’s “noble service to the nation”. Unfortunately, it was
an unsettled time in Booker T. Jr’s life and he did not remain at Mechanic Arts
for long. Subsequently, he also had short stays at a number of private schools in
Massachusetts and New Hampshire before finally settling down at Fisk
University in Nashville, TN.


Not all MAHS graduates went into fields related to their high school training.
Waldo C. Hasenfus ’00, for instance, became a Roman Catholic priest. He was
the brother of Nathaniel J. Hasenfus, who would head the English Department at
Boston Technical High School in the 1940s and 1950s.

20
 The 1910s

Mechanic Arts High School’s building worries were finally over, but a more
serious struggle over its mission was just beginning.

In 1911 the school committee appointed a Businessmen’s Advisory

Committee to investigate a report published by MIT showing that, from 1895 to
1906, students from MAHS didn’t perform as well as those from suburban and
other Boston high schools. Figures showed that an above average number of
MAHS men left MIT with a poor record; a lower than average number
graduated; and the academic record of those who did graduate from MIT was
lower than average. The committee’s attention was particularly drawn to the fact
that English High School graduates rated higher than MAHS graduates in all
three categories.

C.W. Parmenter replied that he felt MIT’s unfavorable judgment of MAHS

was unjustified. He argued that MIT’s figures didn’t present the whole story. His
rebuttal was based on three main points:

1. English High School was established 75 years before Mechanic Arts. It

drew many promising sons from the families of its alumni and attracted
large numbers of the most talented elementary school graduates to one of
New England’s best high school buildings. MAHS, on the other hand,
didn’t have the same drawing power. But, in spite of a generally
inadequate and overcrowded building, it managed to train and send to
MIT more of its graduates than did English. Also, the average standing of
MAHS graduates was merely five points lower than that of English High’s
graduates, with their heritage of distinguished achievement.

2. Many former MAHS students who left MIT did so not because of lack of
ability, but because they needed to work and, therefore, could not devote
sufficient time to their studies.

3. Because MIT would not provide the names of the 234 students it claimed
were former MAHS students, the headmaster could not examine their high
school records. However, he was not able to find more than 208 Mechanic
Arts graduates who had attended MIT. The difference, he felt, may be
students who had attended, but never graduated from, MAHS and later
qualified for admission to MIT through the use of tutors or private
schools.

21
 Incidentally, one point made by Parmenter is most unusual. He states
“Whatever may be the prevailing public opinion, it is nevertheless true that the
primary purpose of the Mechanic Arts High School has always been to give the
best training possible to boys whose formal education was to end with the high
school, and preparation for technical colleges has been merely incidental.” This
is certainly contrary to his previous positions and also contrary to the stated
position of the school committee.

The most critical look at Mechanic Arts High School, however, was yet to
come. In early 1912 the Boston School Committee commissioned a study of the
school by Charles A. Prosser, Secretary of the National Society for the
Promotion of Industrial Education. Through a series of school visits, interviews
with its staff, and questionnaires provided to students (of both MAHS and
English High) and Headmaster Parmenter, Mr. Prosser collected a great amount
of data for his study, the aim of which was to decide if the school was effectively
doing the job the school committee desired.

Prosser’s 134 page report, which he later used as his PhD thesis, contains
many conclusions in common with the reports of Prof. Williston and the
Businessmen’s Advisory Committee. Prosser found that:

⋅ The school committee wanted MAHS to prepare its pupils for

advantageous entry into industry, while the school’s aim seemed to be to
give its students a general education and prepare them for engineering
college.

⋅ The course of study, and kind of instruction provided, did not give the
kind of training the school committee desired.

⋅ The classes, especially shop classes, were too large.

⋅ MAHS was not needed as a preparatory school for engineering college;

other city high schools seemed to do the job better.

⋅ The school failed to meet the needs of the 85% of its students who did not
go on to an engineering college and concentrated on the mere 15% who
did.

⋅ The headmaster was not currently, and had not been for about 10 years, in
agreement with the school committee as to “what the school should be and
do”.

22
 C.A. Prosser’s main recommendations were as follows:

⋅ The school committee and the headmaster should reach an understanding

regarding the mission and organization of the school.

⋅ If the headmaster could not agree fully with the aims of the school
committee he should request to be transferred to another high school.

⋅ MAHS should gradually abandon all attempts to prepare students for

engineering college and concentrate on the school committee’s goal of
preparing students for industry.

⋅ Courses such as foreign languages, general science and general math

should be eliminated.

⋅ The normal use of textbooks should be eliminated and replaced by trade

literature and information from outside shops.

⋅ All teachers, even English teachers, must have some industrial experience.

⋅ Shops should be organized as commercial enterprises.

⋅ Instruction should include visits to industrial plants and lectures by

businessmen.

⋅ Classes should be made smaller.

⋅ A placement bureau should be established.

⋅ Changes should be instituted beginning with the Class of 1918’s entrance

in 1914.

As might be expected, given his track record, Headmaster Parmenter rejected

most of Prosser’s study. He replied to the school committee that, although he
believed some of Prosser’s recommendations would be beneficial to the school,
he disagreed with many of them. He felt that they would increase the cost per
pupil by 40-50%; would reduce the capacity of MAHS to 1000 pupils; would
require substantial expenditures for building and equipment changes; and would
seriously disappoint school alumni.

23
 Mr. Parmenter proposed an alternative plan:

⋅ Change the name of the school to “Technical High School”, because

“Mechanic Arts High School” causes confusion regarding its goals and
organization.

⋅ Reorganize the course of study into two parallel paths – an Industrial track
and a General, or Academic, track. Students would study essentially the
same subjects for the first two years, regardless of which track they were
on.

⋅ Mathematics courses would be oriented more toward practical

applications for all first and second year students and for all four years in
the Industrial path.

⋅ Reorganize shop work so as to introduce more standard shop methods but

not require smaller classes.

⋅ Organize a placement bureau.

⋅ Make it clear that the primary aim of the school was to give practical
training to “boys who are not going to college.”

The school committee didn’t buy Parmenter’s alternative proposal, however;

they decided to adopt the so-called “Prosser Plan.”

At the National Education Association’s convention in the summer of 1914,

Adelbert H. Morrison, head of the Science Department, and later headmaster, of
MAHS presented a paper on Applied Science in a technical high school. Mr.
Morrison referenced C.A. Prosser’s Report and stated his belief that the
“experiment” starting at MAHS in September 1914 would be watched keenly by
educators all across the country. He also included some interesting, and possibly
politically savvy statements, such as:

⋅ His paper assumes that it is “no part of the purpose of a technical high
school to prepare pupils for a technical college”.

⋅ It has been demonstrated that a nontechnical high school provides a better

preparation for technical college, since a technical high school does not
usually attract the type of minds capable of dealing with abstract
problems.

24
 ⋅ A technical high school should not aim to have its pupils attain manual
skills in mechanical processes, since that’s the goal of a trade school.

The Boston School Superintendent’s Annual Report for 1914 contains a fairly
lengthy explanation of the reorganization of the MAHS course of study,
including the rationale. Interestingly, it also presents data showing that almost
one in six (actually, 1277 out of 7283) Boston high schools boys was enrolled at
Mechanic Arts.

The so-called “experiment” appeared to progress smoothly from 1915-1917.

Annual reports for those years’ reports say little more about MAHS than “The
Mechanic Arts High School is being reconstructed into an industrial school to
prepare for industrial occupations outside of the trades.”

But apparently things were not progressing as well as reported. Albert E.

Winship, nationally known educator and editor of the Journal of Education,
wrote a strongly worded Boston Globe article in March 1919. He began by
charging that some among Boston’s elite had always given their own children
the best education while at the same time discouraged the over-education of the
masses. He also accused some people of trying to turn the city’s most popular
high school, Mechanic Arts, into a “mere bench shop”, thereby robbing boys
from ordinary families of the opportunity to better their lives. Winship
concluded with the warning that degrading “our noble Mechanic Arts” would be,
in effect, sending a message to prospective MAHS students they would have to
abandon their aspirations and hopes if they entered the school.

Later in 1919 the school superintendent reported that, after a five year trial
period of the “Prosser Plan”, it had been decided to make some changes in the
school’s course of study. He clearly stated that Prosser’s plan was not being
abandoned, but modifications were being made to introduce in the third and
fourth year a “parallel course giving wider opportunities to the students of the
school”. This path would provide for certain electives allowing students to
prepare for higher technical institutions. This new plan sounded very similar to
C.W. Parmenter’s alternative plan, which the school committee had rejected in
1914.

A much different view of the “Prosser Plan” trial was provided years later in
a school history written for The Artisan by student S. B. Huss ’29. He wrote,
“The result was a dismal failure, so dismal that immediately when the four years
allotted to the experiment were up, the course was again changed.” Since Huss
was only 7 years old when the experiment was terminated, his opinion was most

25
likely formed using information gathered from MAHS teachers and staff who
had lived through the experiment.


A Mechanic Arts High School Student Council was formed in 1911. It

organized and managed a number of subordinate organizations including the
Athletic, Lavatory, Corridor, and Lunchroom Committees; an Outside Patrol;
and a School Court, which dealt with offenders of the Council Constitution.


The Mechanic Arts Alumni Association held a meeting in June 1915.

Afterwards, the association wrote to Mr. Parmenter, “It was most unfortunate
that some glassware and fixtures were broken by the pranks of some of the
younger members of the Alumni at the meeting on June 3d. We sincerely regret
the occurrence.” The association also offered to pay for the damage.


In a letter, Headmaster Parmenter wrote that the school had been forced to
close for two months in the winter of 1918-1919 because of a lack of fuel for the
furnaces.


Fifteen former MAHS students died while in military service during World
War I. Among them was Irving W. Adams, the first Massachusetts man killed in
the war. Born the same year that Mechanic Arts opened, Adams was honored by
having both an American Legion post and a park in the center of Roslindale,
where he grew up, named for him.


One Mechanic Arts alumnus who survived the war was Charles H. Dolan Jr.
of Dorchester, secretary and treasurer of the Class of 1913. After studying
electrical engineering at MIT for a year and a half, he went to work in 1915 for
Sperry Gyroscope in France. In August 1916 he joined the French Foreign
Legion, then immediately transferred to the French Air Service. Following pilot
training he was ordered to join the famed Lafayette Escadrille N 124, a fighter
squadron composed almost exclusively of American volunteer pilots. In
February 1918 the unit was transferred to the American Army as the 103rd
Pursuit Squadron after the United States entered the war. Charles Dolan died in
1981 at age 86; he was the last surviving member of the 38 American pilots of
the Lafayette Escadrille,.

26
27
 The 1920s

For America as a whole this decade may have been the “Roaring 20s”, but for
Mechanic Arts High School, no longer held back by longstanding battles over
facility and mission, it was truly the “Soaring 20s”.

The School Superintendent’s annual report for 1920 gave a short update on
the progress which had been made since the adoption of the dual track course of
study in 1919. It showed that MAHS had experienced a 37% increase in total
school enrollment (from 911 to 1250 students) since September 1918, the last
year of admissions under the “Prosser Plan”. During this same period there had
also been fewer dropouts and transfers out in the upper classes. Both of these
changes reversed negative trends that began when the Prosser course of study
was adopted in 1914. The update concluded, “All who are interested in the
school seem convinced that the new courses provide distinctly better training for
those who cannot go to college, and tend to arouse ambition, while furnishing
adequate preparation for those who wish further and higher education.”


Separately, the superintendent in 1920 reported that the annual schoolboy

street parade consisted of eight regiments and represented all high schools
except MAHS. Although it had been introduced to the school system in 1864
and required for most Boston high school boys since 1912, military drill had not
yet made its appearance at Belvidere and Dalton Sts.


The amount of time devoted to English in the first two years was doubled
starting in 1923.


Undoubtedly the biggest news in 1923 for Mechanic Arts High School was
the retirement in June of Headmaster Charles W. Parmenter. After having
literally lived the position for 29 years, he turned over the office to Adelbert H.
Morrison, head of the MAHS Science Department.

Dr. Parmenter’s portrait was painted by well known local artist Walter
Gilman Page and subsequently purchased by the alumni association in
recognition of the headmaster’s faithful service to Mechanic Arts. The

28
association presented the portrait to the school, where it hung over the stage of
the assembly hall for many years.

The MAHS Alumni Association hosted a dinner at the Boston City Club in
April 1923 to pay tribute to Dr. Parmenter, the man it credited with developing
the school. Noting that “No one in the future will be called upon to do the
pioneer work that has been accomplished in the last thirty years”, it invited
Massachusetts Governor Channing H. Cox, the chairman of the Boston School
Committee, Superintendent of Schools Jeremiah E. Burke, and other notables to
assist in honoring the headmaster.


The superintendent’s report for 1925 contained a short, but very positive,
message on Mechanic Arts High School. The report repeated the same “It is not
a trade school” message, which had not changed at all since the school was first
described in Dr. Seaver’s plan of 1889. It also declared that total enrollment had
rapidly declined from a high of 1506 to a low of 911 during the four years the
school operated under the “Prosser Plan”. The report even speculated that the
reason for this drop in enrollment was parents’ unhappiness over their sons being
unable to continue their education at higher institutions. The report called
MAHS graduates “successful” and noted that an April 1925 study had
determined that roughly 85% of them were in jobs “requiring knowledge fairly
well related to their kind of training.” And, finally, it commended the school for
experiencing comparatively little truancy, which it felt was the result of its
students’ “being interested in something he likes and can do.”


In April 1926 MAHS opened a sheetmetal shop on the second floor of a

former livery stable on Scotia St. And it equipped the ground floor of that
building as a gymnasium! It wasn’t that “large, well appointed gymnasium” of
students’ dreams, but at least it was a gym.

Asked in 1926 about the lack of military drill Headmaster Morrison stated, “I
am personally in favor of military drill in boys’ high schools and intend to seek
to have it approved for the Mechanic Arts High School as soon as the necessary
facilities are provided.” In January 1927, after being made mandatory for all
high school boys, military drill finally took its place in the MAHS curriculum.
Unfortunately, the facility provided for drill was the gym underneath the
sheetmetal shop. The addition of 1000 rifle racks stole what little space had
existed there.

29
 Major Vincent Breen, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for
gallantry during World War I, was selected as the school’s drill instructor. Major
(later Brigadier General) Breen was to serve in that post until the early 1960s,
when military drill was eliminated from the course of study at all Boston high
schools.


260 members of the MAHS senior class received some unwelcome publicity
from Boston newspapers for their actions late one night in May 1926. After
leaving a banquet at the Brunswick Hotel the students began singing, formed a
“snake dance”, and paraded down Boylston St. from Copley Square. When they
started to interfere with traffic on Boylston and Washington Sts. a squad of
police attempted to break up the crowd. At Dock Square the police charged into
the students, but the students escaped by dashing between cars and running
down side streets. Fortunately there were no injuries. There’s no mention made
in the school’s records of the type of discussion Headmaster Morrison might
have had with those students.


At the beginning of school years from the 1920s through the 1940s, all
MAHS students were given a small guidebook called the Buff and Blue Key. Its
stated purpose was “to help you become acquainted with the customs of this
school.” Part of what it provided was a list of the teachers and staff, the course
of study, a short history of the school, clubs and other activities, and various
helpful hints, such as how to write a note requesting to leave a study room. In
short, it gave students the rules of the road.


In June 1927, only one month after Charles Lindbergh’s flight to Europe,
Army Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger ’13, from South Boston, flew as navigator/co-
pilot on the first non-stop flight from the west coast to Hawaii. Although not a
solo effort, Hegenberger’s feat of successfully navigating to a destination as
small as Hawaii after a 26 hour flight covering 2400 miles was a much more
technically demanding one than locating Europe. He and the pilot, Lt. Lester
Maitland, were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by President
Calvin Coolidge for their accomplishment.

During this period Mechanic Arts High School’s football team played some
of its games at Braves Field in Allston. It competed not only against other

30
Boston high schools but also against some private prep schools, such as The
Middlesex School in Concord.

Other MAHS sports teams played non-city teams as well. Newspaper

clippings from the period show that the MAHS swimming team beat Malden and
the hockey team beat Watertown High 1-0.

31
 The 1930s

There do not seem to have been any dramatic events at MAHS during the
1930s. However, the school, its students and their families were definitely not
immune to the effects of the signature event of this decade, “The Great
Depression”, a worldwide economic calamity.

The Mechanic Arts High School Alumni Association maintained an Alumni

Emergency Fund during this period. Although it isn’t recorded why this fund
was established, a few examples illustrate how it was used.

⋅ Mr. Morrison requested the association to provide one student with $2.50
for carfare and lunches from February 1931 to the end of the school year.
The alumni agreed, asked the headmaster to pay the boy the amount
weekly, and requested Morrison to explain to him that the amount was a
loan that was to be repaid “when able”.

⋅ In April 1931 the headmaster asked the alumni association for $52 for use
of the baseball team, since MAHS didn’t have enough funds for the
team’s most urgent needs – 8 pairs of shoes (@ $4.00 each), 8 bats (@
$.75 each), and 8 pairs of sliding pads (@ $1.75 each).

⋅ One Mechanic Arts student’s family consisted of six children, no father,

and a mother who made sandwiches in a lunch room. They barely made
ends meet and couldn’t afford eyeglasses for the pupil, whom the
headmaster called an excellent boy. The alumni association provided the
$5.00 needed for his glasses in December 1931.

⋅ The association also gave the school $58.00 for suits for the track team. In
February 1932 acting headmaster Edwin F. Field thanked the alumni and
promised that “I shall make certain that they know to whom they are
indebted.”


The 248 members of MAHS’ Class of 1932 were made the subjects of a
follow-up study performed by the Boston Public School’s Department of
Vocational Guidance Department. This study had as its goal to determine “how
these young people made their way in the world nine years after graduation.”
The results of this study were published in the school superintendent’s annual
report for 1941. Some of the more interesting facts reported about the class
were:

32
⋅ Course A, called the Shop Course, prepared students for technical schools
such as Wentworth Institute and Northeastern University, while Course B,
called the College Course, prepared its student for the entrance
requirements of first-class colleges. [Ok, that may not be interesting to the
average reader, but it certainly got my attention. TLH - Northeastern
University, BSEE ’62 and MSEE ’64]

⋅ Of those class members reporting:

⋅ 31 graduates were working as machinists.

⋅ 13 class members had become engineers.

⋅ One class member was in the Diplomatic Service.

⋅ One graduate had gone into farming – blueberries and poultry.

⋅ Eight members were in the Army; three were in the Navy.

⋅ Four were still in college (two in graduate school).

⋅ 93% of Shop Course graduates and 83% of College Course graduates

were employed.

⋅ 14 Shop Course graduates wished they had attended a different school,

while only one College Course graduate did.

⋅ Six members suggested adding Public Speaking to the MAHS curriculum.

⋅ 20 Shop Course graduates rated History as their least useful subject.

⋅ 18 from the College Course rated Foreign Languages as their least useful
subject.

⋅ Mathematics was rated the most useful subject by graduates of both the
Shop and College courses.

⋅ Top wages were reported by a New York band member (Shop Course) and
an engineer for Standard Oil (College Course). Both earned $75 per week.

33
 ⋅ There was only a $3.80 difference in median weekly salaries between the
Shop ($31.20) and College ($35.00) groups.

⋅ College degrees had been earned by five graduates of the Shop Course
and 26 from the College Course.


In May 1932 Albert F. Hegenberger ’13 again made aviation history, at

Patterson Field, Dayton OH. Flying a standard Army airplane, Capt.
Hegenberger took off alone with the cockpit completely covered, flew ten miles
away from the airport, then circled and returned to make a perfect landing.
Although other instrument-only flights had been flown previously, this was the
world’s first solo flight using only instruments. He was awarded another
Distinguished Flying Cross and the Collier Trophy for this accomplishment.


In 1932 a teacher from English High School became the head of the History
Department at MAHS. He remained until 1935, when he transferred back to
English to head that school’s History Department. This was not the last
Mechanic Arts High School would see of D. Leo Daley.


Len Dressler ’41 recalls, “During the 1939 football season I was the third
string quarterback. Our first team had two extraordinary athletes, John Yonaker
(Receiving End) and Gerry Cowhig (Quarterback). We had a fair 1939 season
and the 1940 outlook was very promising with these two stars onboard. I was a
junior that year as were the two star players. Somehow they did not return in the
fall of 1940. What I heard was that Frank Leahy (of future Notre Dame fame)
had the two players transferred to a prep school prior to their acceptance to
Boston College, where Leahy was then the football coach. Records on the
internet confirm that Leahy transferred to Notre Dame and the two players must
have moved with him. … Cowhig did move on to play with the Cleveland Rams
who became the Los Angeles Rams. … Gerry Cowhig doubled for Victor
Mature in the football story movie with Lucille Ball in 1949 when he was still a
pro.” [Cowhig did transfer to a private prep school before enrolling at Notre
Dame. However, Yonaker didn’t return to MAHS because he had graduated with
the Class of 1940. But he too later played for Frank Leahy at Notre Dame. TLH]


34
 More than 300 Mechanic Arts graduates gathered in May 1938 at the Hotel
Vendome for a reunion, an account of which appeared in the Boston Post.
Someone wrote on a newspaper clipping saved in a school scrapbook in the city
archives, “It is interesting to note that “Doc” Mooney. School Boy Sports Editor,
and Gabe Stern, Advertising Department, are both graduates of the Mechanic
Arts High School.”

One big topic of discussion that evening was why young men schooled in the
mechanic arts should find such success in the professions. For instance, Guy L.
Richardson ’00 had become president of the Chicago Surface Lines; Rev. Willi-
am J. Logue, S.J., was assistant pastor at Boston College’s St. Ignatius parish;
James D. Henderson, the alumni association president, was head of the Brook-
line Federal Loan and Savings Bank; and Charles C. Dasey ’00 was passenger
manager for Cunard White Star Lines. The oldest graduate at the reunion was
Ralph H. Knapp ’96, head of the mechanical drawing department at MAHS. A
highlight of the occasion was the telephone call placed to 86 year old Charles W.
Parmenter in Vermont.

35
 The 1940s

The two most significant events for Mechanic Arts High School during the
1940s were World War II and a name change.


Dr. Charles W. Parmenter died in August 1940. In a short speech to students

at the beginning of school in September, Headmaster Morrison paid tribute to
Dr. Parmenter’s long and significant service to the school by noting, “He guided
the school through its infancy and early youth in such a way that it became
known as one of the best of its type. … The school he guided and developed in
its early days will long stand as a memorial to his wisdom and unselfish
devotion.” Although almost certainly unknown to most students, it was Dr.
Parmenter’s oil portrait that hung over the left side of the stage in the school’s
Assembly Hall for many years.


In 1941 MAHS found that, once again, it was unable to accommodate all
regular applicants for admission. Mr. Morrison believed one reason for this was
the excellent reputation that the school had established. He predicted that more
students would be turned away in 1942, even though it was likely there would be
a MAHS “colony in the Latin School.” It turned out that, even with its freshmen
housed in an annex at Latin, Mechanic Arts was forced to drop its entire ninth
grade program. Students who would’ve previously gone to MAHS in the ninth
grade were forced to take that year’s courses in junior high school or at other
high schools around the city.


Interestingly, just three years after the big alumni reunion in 1938 James P.
Connelly ’41 wrote an article for the 1941 yearbook, called the Buff and Blue
Yearbook until being renamed The Technician a few years later. In it, he
identified his class’ greatest need as “an ACTIVE Alumni Association”. He
called the present association “dormant as far as recent classes are concerned.”
[Unless the association had experienced a rapid drop-off in overall activity since
1938, maybe it was focusing too much on its oldest members and not
concentrating enough energy on newer members. TLH]


Like many schools across the country, MAHS did its part to help during
WWII. Because of its particular equipment and its teachers’ skills, though.

36
MAHS was uniquely prepared to answer the country’s call. In May 1941, before
America formally entered the war, Mr. Morrison wrote an Artisan article in
which he stated that more than 100 seniors had been released to produce
material for national defense and the school’s machine shops were being used to
train skilled workers.

Mechanic Arts High School lent even more direct assistance to the national
defense effort once the US was engaged in the war. It instructed Navy personnel
in machine shop practice, math, and mechanical drawing; trained employees of
the Watertown Arsenal; taught courses to “girl trainees” from MIT’s machine
shops; gave a pre-induction course to enlistees of the Army Air Corps; taught
Coast Guardsmen; and provided drafting classes to groups from the U.S. Army
Signal Corps and the Army Radio School.

Throughout the war years the school also offered afternoon and evening
classes for outside students. In his autobiography, Teddy Ballgame, Ted Williams
recalls that he and Red Sox teammate Johnny Pesky took evening classes in
1942 at Mechanic Arts to brush up on mathematics before they entered military
service to begin their training as naval aviators. The Christian Science Monitor
even ran a picture in July of the two players in class at the school.


In an article written on the 50th anniversary of MAHS’ founding, the Back

Bay Ledger Times newspaper commented that a more apt name for the school
would be Boston Technical High School. In the spring of 1944 the alumni
association petitioned the headmaster to change the school’s name. And in
September 1944 the school committee unanimously passed the following:
“Ordered, that the Mechanic Arts High School is hereby renamed The Boston
Technical High School.”

John T. Nykiel ’45 presented a student’s view of the need for, and the impact
of, its new name in an Artisan article entitled “Farewell Mechanic Arts, Hail
Technical”. He felt that, over the years, its old name had become much too
confusing, causing many people to conclude wrongly that it offered merely
extended versions of some junior high school courses. He also believed that
many people considered MAHS to be just another kind of trade school.
Consequently, many students who could have benefited from its excellent
college preparatory course were dissuaded from attending. And too many boys
who should have attended a trade school went to MAHS instead. His article
finished by praising Boston Technical High School’s excellent training in both
college preparatory and technical engineering subjects and reminding students

37
that they were privileged to attend “this grand school.” Nykiel’s article also
reported two interesting facts – (1) the school had graduated nearly 6000 men
since 1896 and (2) it had the highest cost per pupil in the city.


Just months before the name change, in June 1944, Adelbert H. Morrison
retired as headmaster. Mr. Morrison had been the headmaster since 1923, had
served before then as head of the school’s science department, and had taught at
the school since 1904. At the time of his retirement Mr. Morrison stated quite
clearly that Mechanic Arts needed a new building in a new location, as the
school’s normal enrollment was between 1600 and 1700 students in a building
designed to hold 1250.

In August 1944 D. Leo Daley, head of the History Department at Boston

English High School, was named to replace Mr. Morrison. Mr. Daley had
previously served as head of the MAHS history department.

Shortly after his selection, the new headmaster told a newspaper that he was
concerned with a decrease in enrollment at Technical High. He believed the
decrease was caused by economic conditions that allowed students with even
one year of Tech’s training to get a good paying job and drop out of school; in
essence it was a victim of its own success. Using words similar to those in
President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address, D. Leo Daley said, “There
is too much talk of what the nation owes its youth and not enough said about the
obligations the youth has to its country.” The key point Daley said he wanted to
make with the pupils was that their greatest responsibility was to finish their
high school education.


Very little was wasted on the home front during World War II, as can be seen
below in a sample of school stationery from 1944.

38
 

Four women teachers were hired at Tech during World War II. Mrs. Mabel
Dixon, Miss Florence Magner (math), Miss Claire G. Ruane (history), and Miss
Bernice A. Smith (math) were hired presumably to replace male teachers who’d
been called into the military. According to the Artisan, Miss Smith was a
licensed pilot.

Many Mechanic Arts and Boston Technical alumni served with distinction
during World War II. Excerpts from newspaper stories of the time illustrate the
variety of roles they performed.

⋅ George D. Murray ’05, originally from Dorchester, commanded the air-

craft carrier USS Enterprise in 1942 during Doolittle’s Raid and the Battle
of Midway, a turning point of the War in the Pacific. He was awarded the
Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism and was later promoted to Rear Ad-
miral. As Commander Marianas at the end of the war, Vice Admiral Mur-
ray, acting on behalf of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, accepted the Japan-
ese surrender of the Carolines at Truk Atoll.

⋅ Vernon B. Howland ’42 of the Back Bay served as a Marine Corps Private
on Guadalcanal. He told his mother in a letter that “there has been some
action on this island, but that is all I can say.”

⋅ Len Dressler ’41 went into the Army Specialized Training Program
(ASTP), designed to provide engineering training to academically-gifted
enlisted men. When the ASTP was suddenly disbanded in early 1944,
most of its members were immediately reassigned to infantry units and
quickly shipped to France to help fight in the Battle of the Bulge. Len,
however, who’d been trained as an aircraft mechanic before the war, was
reassigned to the Army Air Corps, which probably saved his life. He was
subsequently trained as a gunner on a low altitude attack bomber for the
expected invasion of Japan, which never occurred.

⋅ James F. Berry, from Dorchester, became a captain in the Army’s Corps of

Engineers. He and a Lt. Ebbeson from Roslindale were taken prisoner
near the walled city of St. Malo, France while on a volunteer mission. Us-
ing some German language skills acquired at MAHS Berry was able to

39
 discover that all the German enlisted soldiers were ready to surrender; he
also managed to persuade one of them to cut a vital German communica-
tions line. After a lot more talking and a heavy American artillery barrage,
the German officer in charge indicated he wanted to surrender. Berry and
Ebbeson obligingly marched the entire German force out of the walled
city.

⋅ William Maguire ’39 of West Roxbury was a draftsman at Stone & Web-
ster before entering the Army in 1941 and winning his pilot’s wings in
1942. While flying a P-47 fighter he shot down two German aircraft. He
was killed later in the war.

⋅ Albert F. Hegenberger ’13 continued his long and distinguished Air Corps
career. As a colonel he commanded the 11th Bombardment Wing at
Hickam Field, Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He later served
in various stateside assignments before assuming command of the 14th Air
Force in China near the end of the war.

⋅ Lt. Joseph W. Lyons ’23 served as a Navy chaplain in the South Pacific.
Before entering the Navy in 1942 Fr. Lyons, originally from Roxbury, had
served at St. Anne’s church in Somerville for nine years.

Some of Technical High’s teachers were also called into the military during
the war. Among them were:

⋅ James H. Holland, affectionately known as “Dutchy” to students of my

generation. In addition to teaching, Mr. Holland had been coach of all
sports at MAHS before being called into the Army Air Corps, where he
was the supervisor of 142 flying schools in the Eastern Flying Training
Command;

40
 ⋅ Howard Baumeister, teacher and MAHS graduate, who became a Chief
Machinist Mate in the Navy;

⋅ Arthur Klein, who served as an Army Air Corps psychologist and statisti-
cian;

⋅ Benjamin Lieberfarb, who headed an information and education office. He

also served as an education and vocation counselor while in the Army Air
Corps;

⋅ William N. Mistler, who served as a machinist’s mate aboard the USS

Texas in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters;

⋅ Warren J. Moran, who was an Instructor and Training Officer and Officer-
In-Charge of Training Aids at various Navy bases. At some time during
his service he broke his arm while on the deck of a destroyer during a hur-
ricane.

⋅ Daniel F. O’Connell, who directed ground training at several Air Corps pi-
lot schools.

The school reported to the school superintendent in 1945 that 1009 boys had
joined the US military in WWII. The Class of 1946 yearbook paid tribute to 109
men from the school who gave their lives in the Second World War. In 1947
Guidance Counselor Herbert P. Carter noted in the Artisan that the classes of
1944, 1945, and 1946 had generously provided a bronze war memorial tablet.
This plaque, located in a corridor opposite the headmaster’s office, was hung
there to honor “all the boys from this school, more than two thousand in number,
who served their country in World War II. Especially is it intended to be a con-

41
stant reminder of the heroism of the hundred and twenty boys who made the su-
preme sacrifice in that terrible conflict.” Mr. Carter’s figures differ from, and are
probably more accurate than, those reported earlier.

Among the school’s alumni who didn’t return were:

⋅ George A. Moran, ’35, U.S. Army, who was killed at Pearl Harbor;

⋅ Joseph Zappala ’38, U.S. Army, who was killed at Pearl Harbor;

⋅ Staff Sergeant Paul K. Hayes ’38, who was killed in an air attack on
Borneo after having been overseas for 18 months;

⋅ Pfc. James E. Howley ’43 of Dorchester, who’d been a football player at

Mechanic Arts High School and was killed in action in France; and

⋅ Private Thomas J. Attridge ’35, of Dorchester, killed in action in Italy.

He’d been a member of the MAHS band and the track team, and had pre-
viously been wounded during the Sicily campaign.


Thomas Wallace ’29 received his PhD in Physics from Boston University in
1940. He taught Physics at Northeastern University to engineering students like
me for many years.


In 1946 the Artisan reported that Mr. Daley had told ‘someone’ that Technical
High might have a new building, but that it would not be built until after ‘they’
graduate. Was this just wishful thinking on his part?


In 1947 the Boston Tech Alumni Association announced to its members that
former English Department head Charles L. Hanson “has seen fit to write an in-
teresting and complete history of our school. Included in this rare volume will be
pictures of the school and its teachers – past and present.” There are no records
that show if this history, to be priced at $2.50, was ever produced. [If I’d been
able to locate a copy, it might’ve saved me many hours of research and writing.
TLH]


42
 In 1948 Walter T. Durnan, head of the Science Department at South Boston
High School, became Boston Tech’s fifth headmaster when D. Leo Daley
became an assistant school superintendent.

Assembly 1949

43
 The 1950s

This decade, warmed by a few glimmers of hope but mostly raked by the
cold winds of despair, would be the beginning of the end for Boston Technical
High School in the Back Bay.

Short on space – again – Boston Tech opened an annex in the Theodore

Roosevelt Jr. High School building just off Washington St. near Egleston Square
in the early 50s. Sophomores spent half a year at the main building, working in
the Forge Shop as well as on academic subjects, and half a year at the annex
taking a purely academic course load.


Battles raged throughout the 1950s over the issue of Technical’s future
home.

Walter E. Mutz, president of the Boston Technical High School Alumni

Association, wrote to Joseph G. White, chairman of the Boston School
Committee in April 1950 regarding the need for a new school. Mr. White
replied, “I want to assure you and the members of the Boston Technical High
School Alumni Association that when any appropriation for new high school
buildings is made by the School Committee your petition will be given every
consideration. … We are not unmindful of the antiquated building occupied by
the students of Boston Technical High School.”

In May 1950 school committee secretary Louise Kane wrote to Mutz, “your
recent communication … was presented and placed on file for consideration at
the time that new building construction is under discussion.” [I interpret both of
these replies from the school committee as - Don’t call us; we’ll call you. TLH]

Walter Mutz duly informed Headmaster Durnan by letter in June 1950 of his
communication with the school committee. In his letter he also included a very
cryptic passage, “Upon my return from Europe yesterday I was pleased to find a
letter from our mutual friend Mr. Perkins advising me that my resignation as
President of the B.T.H.S. had been accepted. I hope that this action will result in
the rejuvenation of the Alumni Association. Anything that I can do to assist you
in your work at the school will be considered a pleasure on my part.” [If he was
pleased to have his resignation accepted, why was he continuing to volunteer his
help? Who was spearheading the rejuvenation of the association? In light of his
clearly impending resignation, why had he written to the school committee in
the first place? TLH]

44
 The battle over the future home of Boston Tech really heated up in 1957 and
1958.

The 1957 annual report of the school superintendant stated “In 1956 and
1957 preparation of architectural plans were in process or completed for the
following units: New Boston Technical High School, Roxbury, capacity 1500.”
It’s not recorded if these plans were for an entirely new building and what site
was being considered.

In November 1957 the Boston Traveler published an article advocating a new

building. Some of its key points were:

⋅ One lathe that was built by MAHS students before the USS Maine was
sunk in 1898 is still in use;

⋅ BTHS teachers must manufacture parts in order to maintain some

equipment that was installed when the building first opened;

⋅ 1000 boys have been refused admission in the past five years;

⋅ Tech is the only public school in the city without a gym and a physical
education program;

⋅ The machine shop is a maze of overhead pulley-driven belts;

45
 ⋅ All but 200 pupils eat their lunches in classrooms;

⋅ It’s not a trade or vocational school;

⋅ A 1925 letter from the school committee indicated it was in sympathy for
a new school and hoped to provide suitable and adequate accommodations
“at no distant date”;

⋅ John P. McMorrow, chairman of the 1957 school committee, and other

committeemen, had been pushing for a new school, estimated to cost
$5M; and

⋅ Headmaster Durnan added “You do the best with what you have. … We
think we’ve done pretty well. … But I still maintain that tin can science
produces tin can results”.

The Boston Herald took the opposing view. In a March 1958 editorial it
stated that, even though it would be nice to build a new school for Boston
Technical, the city was in serious financial trouble and simply could not afford
it. It also made the point that the Roxbury Memorial building would make an
excellent new home for Tech since it had ample space for classrooms and shops,
was centrally located, and was relatively new (its two buildings were built in
1927 and 1929). It urged the school committee to say “no” to a new Boston Tech
and accept a compromise solution to the problem.

Another Boston Herald editorial two days later repeated the same message. It
called the school committee’s hesitation over the decision “surprising”,
considering the city’s bad financial shape. Spending $6M to $7M for a new Tech
building would, the paper felt, plunge the city into even deeper money troubles.
Roxbury Memorial was no longer needed; its remaining students could easily be
absorbed into other schools. And with the availability of its building, there was
“no need whatsoever to build now for Technical High.”

In April 1958 the Boston Globe reported that the school committee had voted
to reject construction of a new Boston Tech building, estimated to cost $6M. It
also voted to admit no freshmen to Roxbury Memorial in September, to transfer
its remaining students (boys to the Theodore Roosevelt School, Tech’s annex,
and girls to an undecided location), and to renovate the Roxbury Memorial
building for BTHS at a cost of $1.5M. 1958 school committee chairman, George
F. Hurley, declared that a new Boston Technical building was necessary. Former
committee chairman, John P. McMorrow, now led the campaign for Tech’s

46
transfer. Two of the five committee members had sought to delay a vote until
after hearing from alumni, administrators, and parents of both Boston Tech and
Roxbury Memorial students, but that did not occur.

However, the vote to transfer Boston Tech did not settle the issue. Public
hearings were held in June 1958 to allow opponents of the plan to speak. Two
main factions presented their views – one group which didn’t want Roxbury
Memorial to close and another group which wanted a new building for Tech.

Walter Durnan, speaking for the latter group, noted that the Roxbury school
was entirely too big for Technical’s purposes, it was poorly located with respect
to transportation, it would require extensive structural changes, and it was not
close to athletic facilities. Taking a page from Charles W. Parmenter’s play book,
Mr. Durnan presented an alternative plan at the public hearing. He proposed that
the Theodore Roosevelt School building be enlarged, at an estimated cost of
$2.85M, to meet his school’s needs and that Tech stay in its Back Bay building
until the Egleston Sq. building was ready.

A Boston Globe editorial published immediately after the hearings stated the
there were plans to transform Boston Technical into a selective science high
school, a la New York City’s Bronx High School of Science. It said that Mr.
Durnan did not believe the Roxbury Memorial building could be renovated into
a satisfactory facility for that type of school. It also reported the headmaster’s
skepticism of the committee’s cost estimates for the proposed remodeling of
Roxbury Memorial’s building. The Globe’s overall message was that, before the
school committee implemented its order, it should satisfy the public that the
move of Tech to Memorial was the most practical solution to the problem.

Just a few days after Mr. Durnan made his proposal at the public hearing,
School Superintendent Dennis C. Haley sent a memorandum to John P.
McMorrow in which he gave his reasons for rejecting the enlargement of the
Roosevelt School. Haley felt the assembly hall was too small, it had an
inadequate gymnasium, and it would cost too much to acquire adjacent land. He
also claimed that the Roosevelt site had been looked at as a possible future home
for Technical over a year before and the idea had been rejected.

Other opinions surfaced. Lester S. Perkins ‘06, secretary of the MAHS

Alumni Association was quoted in the Boston Sunday Globe as favoring a brand
new school at a site in Dorchester. He said, “That’s what we old graduates want
– a new school from top to bottom”. [Since Mr. Perkins also stated that the
organization represented graduates from 1893-1943, I wonder if some members

47
of the old MAHS association had not fully accepted the transition of their school
to Boston Technical High School. TLH]

At almost the same time John P. Grayken, Secretary-Treasurer of the MAHS-

BTHS Alumni Association [Was this a different association than Lester Perkins’
group? TLH] wrote a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe in which he
recommended reconsideration of the school committee’s vote to transfer Tech.
He questioned how moving 1200 Technical students into a vacated Roxbury
Memorial building (with a capacity of 3500 students) would solve the issue of
overcapacity. He also stated his belief that a new Technical could be built for
$3M, the expense of which could be partially offset by the $1.8M not required
for renovations at Roxbury Memorial. And, he noted, the old Technical building
was located on very valuable land; its sale price could also be applied to the cost
of a new building. Thus, he felt that a new Boston Technical could be provided
at very little additional expense to the city.

But the school committee’s decision stood. Boston Technical High School
would move from Belvidere and Dalton Sts. in the Back Bay to Townsend St. in
Roxbury.

Two weeks after the public hearing Walter T. Durnan submitted his retirement
papers. The Boston Globe reported that at age 64, six years short of the
compulsory retirement age, he’d submitted his retirement request in protest over
the school committee’s decision to transfer Tech to Roxbury Memorial. The
school committee announced, however, that headmaster Durnan’s retirement
request was “not connected in any way with the dispute over the transfer of
Technical High to Roxbury.” It also said that he’d made his intentions to retire
made known one year before. Mr. Durnan retired at 65% of his (maximum for
headmasters) salary of $9,424.


In January 1953 Ralph DeLeo ‘53, captain of the Boston Tech hockey team,
scored 11 goals in one game against Roxbury Memorial High School. The last
10 goals were scored in succession. DeLeo, of East Boston, scored six of his
goals unassisted. This feat made the papers and even attracted the attention of
Boston Bruin players Ed Sandford and Hal Laycoe, who both remarked that
they’d never heard of anything like it before.


Dr. Nathaniel J. Hasenfus, head of the English Department, left Boston

Technical High School in 1958 to become the academic dean at Chamberlayne

48
Junior College. In addition to teaching, he’d been the yearbook advisor since the
first one was published in 1941.


One member of the Class of 1952 became a figure skater. Ronald Ludington
and his wife won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in pairs skating four
time from 1957 to 1960 and bronze medals at the 1959 World Figure Skating
Championships and the 1960 Olympics games in Colorado Springs.


In the mid 50s an English High alumnus became a health teacher at Boston
Tech. John D. O’Bryant, who looked so young that some students thought he
was one of them and not a teacher, established a drill team in 1956. Lacking a
large area, like a “large, well appointed gymnasium” in which to practice, the
team was forced to learn its marching and rifle maneuvers on the assembly hall
stage, which was so small that the team had to march at half step (i.e., take half
sized steps). The team gave its first official performance in November 1956 at an
alumni ‘smoker’ and reception for the football team at New England Mutual
Hall. Mr. O’Bryant continued to lead the drill team into the 1960s. He would
leave his mark on the school and its students in other ways as well.

49
 Beyond The Triangle

The Class of 1960 was the last class to graduate from the old school. In the
summer of 1960 Boston Technical High School relocated to Townsend St. in
Roxbury, site of the former Roxbury Memorial High School.

Alterations to Technical’s new home began in December 1959. The building

was renovated to provide 46 classrooms, eight laboratories, an art room, three
music and band rooms, five drafting rooms, 19 miscellaneous shops, two
demonstration rooms, two audio-visual rooms and a language laboratory. In
addition it featured a newly constructed cafeteria, new lighting, a new intercom
system, a new fire alarm system, and newly refinished floors and furniture.
Extensive structural changes were required to support the heavy shop loads. The
Welding Department of Boston Trade High School fabricated and welded 20
new anvil bases for Tech’s new building. The superintendent later reported that
$1.98M was spent for the “major remodeling and modernization” of the new
Boston Tech.

Except for a brief period in the late 1920s, when the ground floor beneath its
sheet metal shop was set up as a gym (before it became a drill hall), the school
had never had a gymnasium, certainly not a “large, well appointed” one. With
the 1960 move, however, Tech became a school with two gymnasiums –
Roxbury Memorial had had separate gyms for boys and girls. One gym was well
suited for basketball; it even had an electric scoreboard. The second gym was
equipped with an overhead track. Finally, in this respect at least, Tech was living
large.

The physical act of moving Technical beyond the “triangle” was a massive
undertaking requiring considerable planning, coordination, and plain hard work.
Both teachers and students were involved in packing and marking boxes for
shipment, which saved considerable money. In 1961 Headmaster Conway wrote
an excellent and very readable description of the relocation process for the
school superintendent’s annual report. I have included it in Appendix C.

Some machine tools for the new school were purchased from government
surplus, saving $40,000. Other machine tools were removed from the old Tech
and reinstalled in five junior high school shops around the city to upgrade those
facilities.


More than 1600 students applied for admission to the new Boston Tech.

50
 

In March 1960, Mechanic Arts’ Class of 1940 held its 20th reunion. Guests of
honor included Headmaster Conway; former coach James “Dutchy” Holland;
former teachers Arthur Racine and S. Walter Hoyt; and former MAHS football
star and college All-American John Yonaker ’40.


Tech’s last schoolboy parade was held in May 1960. Lack of funding, lack of
interest and increasing public hostility to all things military because of the
Vietnam War led to the gradual demise of military drill in Boston’s high schools.
It was eliminated entirely in 1965. Certain military-related activities, like the
drill team and the band, were retained at Boston Technical for a number of years.

51
 

General Breen retired at about the time of the Roxbury move.

French language teacher Emmet T. Morrill transferred to Boston Latin

School.

Math teacher James W. Dailey was selected to become the Data Processing
Manager of the Boston School Department, effective September 1963.


In 1961 six Boston Technical teachers were selected to receive grants for
summer university study – Roger Connor (Catholic University), Edward A.
Foley (Tufts University), Allan Furber (Tufts University), John Gray (Johns
Hopkins University), Henry F. Mulloy (Tufts University), and Frank
Santosuosso (Tufts University).


The Boston Redevelopment Authority’s 1961 report, “ESTIMATE OF PHYSIC-

AL CHANGES ON THE PRUDENTIAL SITE AND IN SURROUNDING BLOCKS OC-
CURRING SINCE 1955 “ lists a number of uses that were lost since 1955 due to de-
molition or conversion. At the bottom, below apartment buildings, gas stations,
clubs, warehouses, and retail stores is:

1 tech. high school (vacant but not yet razed)

52
 

Number of Graduates per Year, 1896-1960

Year # Year # Year # Year # Year # Year # Year # Year #

13 27
1900 115 1910 1920 74 1930 243 1940 1950 259 1960 ?
6 9
16 12 34
1901 118 1911 1921 1931 207 1941 1951 242
2 2 3
13 21 13 24 31
1902 1912 1922 1932 1942 1952 220
0 5 3 8 7
13 19 18 25 36
1893 0 1903 1913 1923 1933 1943 1953 ?
6 7 4 6 6
16 17 23 31
1894 0 1904 1914 1924 1934 311 1944 1954 ?
9 2 2 3
18 20 21 27 35
1895 0 1905 1915 1925 1935 1945 1955 ?
3 1 7 7 4
5 20 19 21 22 33 3
1896 1906 1916 1926 1936 1946 1956
5 9 0 8 8 4 13*
2 21 21 23 25 29
1897 1907 1917 1927 1937 1947 1957 338
5 0 5 5 2 2
2 23 18 24 35
1898 1908 1918 113 1928 1938 1948 1958 267
8 0 6 2 1
7 24 24 31
1899 1909 67 1919 99 1929 1939 1949 1959 281
5 7 9 3

* Estimated

The tired old building at the corner of Belvidere and Dalton Sts. that had
graduated well over 14,000 boys in its 67 years as the home of Mechanic Arts
High School and Boston Technical High School was demolished in 1963.

53



54
 Appendix A

Headmasters

Frank A. Hill (1893 - 1894)

Frank A. Hill was born in Biddeford, ME in 1841. A graduate of Bowdoin College, before be-
coming Mechanic Arts High School’s first headmaster Frank Hill served as the principal of
Limington Academy in Maine and high schools in Milford, Chelsea, and Cambridge in Mas-
sachusetts.

Charles W. Parmenter (1894 - 1923)

Born in Mt. Holly, VT in 1852, Charles W. Parmenter was an 1877 graduate of Tufts College,
from which he also received M.A. and PhD degrees. Before coming to Mechanic Arts High
School he was a science teacher at several schools and was the principal of Waltham High
School.

Adelbert H. Morrison (1923 - 1944)

Adelbert H. Morrison, a native of Merrimac, MA, was, like Dr. Parmenter, a graduate of Tufts.
He also studied at the University of Berlin and, before coming to Mechanic Arts in 1904,
taught in Spencer, Brookline and Lawrence, all in Massachusetts. At MAHS he taught French,
physics, mechanical drawing, geometry, and algebra prior to becoming head of the Science
Department in 1911. During World War I, while on leave of absence from the school, Mr.
Morrison organized training centers for shipyard workers.

D. Leo Daley (1944 - 1948)

D. Leo Daley received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Boston College and studied
history and economics in the graduate schools of both Boston University and Harvard. He was
head of the History Department at Mechanic Arts from 1932 to 1935. Immediately before
becoming headmaster of Boston Technical, Mr. Daley was head of the History Department at
Boston English High School. Keenly interested in athletics, Mr. Daley coached football at
English High and at Boston College and also served as president of the Eastern Association of
Inter-Collegiate Football Officials.

Walter T. Durnan (1948 -1958)

Born in Arlington, MA Walter Durnan was a 1917 graduate of Boston College and a veteran
of World War I. Before moving to Boston Technical, Mr. Durnan taught at Dorchester High
School and headed the Science Department at South Boston High School.

Everett J. Conway (1958 - ?)

55
 (DRAFT) Appendix B

Interesting/Notable Teachers

General Breen

Dr. Nathaniel J. Hasenfus (Jan 9, 1900 - Nov 18, 1976)

Boston College: 1922, Bachelor of Arts Degree

1925, Master of Education Degree
1931, PhD in English
Teacher English High School 1922-1945
Boston Technical, Head of the English Department, 1941-1958
Principal South Boston Evening High School in the 1940's
Academic Dean Chamberlaine Junior College ,1958-1974
Author : Athletics of Boston College
Boston Globe-BC Football Series
We Summer in Maine
More Vacation Days in Maine
Marie Visits the Zoo
Series of Maine Postcards
Coached the Five Island Maine baseball team 1940's-1950's
Listed in Who's Who in Maine
President of the Boston College Varsity Club twice
Past member of the BC Athletic Board
Member of the Boston College Hall of Fame
The Boston College Eagle of the Year Award for the outstanding male and female student ath-
lete is in his memory.

Dr. Hasenfus passed away suddenly after giving a speech in Bath, Maine on November 18,
1976

James H. “Dutchy” Holland

John D. O’Bryant

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 Appendix C

A Report on Boston Technical High School

By Everett J. Conway, Head Master

PART I

Boston Technical High School has machine, woodworking, electrical, hot and
cold metal shops. These contain many large, expensive, and delicate precision
machines for weighing, measuring, cutting, and planing wood and steel. There
are also thousands of different tools with which students must become familiar
and which they must learn to use when performing their many projects. In addi-
tion, a technical school, like ours, which strongly emphasizes mathematics and
science, as well as mechanical drawing (the language of technocracy and engin-
eering), must have well-equipped and generously stocked biology, physics, and
chemistry laboratories, and drafting rooms with the latest and most up-to-date
drawing teaching materials.

In the light of the above it is clear that moving all the equipment of such a
school to a new site is a project the magnitude of which is staggering. For ex-
ample, over a half a million dollars worth of tools had to be carefully inventor-
ied, definitely marked, and packed safely in numberless boxes of the requisite
size, shape, and capacity. Accurate records, in quadruplicate, had to be kept, the
packed boxes stored in a place convenient for pickup, and the specific delivery
location pinpointed by floor and room in the new site.

Without intelligent and efficient planning, requiring the willing and patient
cooperation of department heads and their respective stuffs, even a beginning
would have seemed almost insurmountable. One must remember that the ship
must be kept moving even though the engines are undergoing repair.

Department heads had to plan their curricula carefully during the moving
year to make certain that no essential instruction was omitted, even though, con-
currently with teaching in the shops, tools and machines gradually had to be dis-
mantled, and boxes reshaped to requisite size, and tools packed in them.

The prime need in such a complex project was a leader — a planner or co-
ordinator especially selected to deal exclusively with the project. The Board of
Superintendents were foreseeing and happy in the choice of Mr. James H. Hol-
land, to be designated to master mind the whole business. Many long and fruitful

57
meetings were arranged by Mr. Holland with the department heads, at which
times each was directed to draw up a plan for his own department. Many con-
sultations were held with the architect of the new school. At these long meetings
all problems of size of shops, location of machines, tool cribs, and general layout
were exhaustively debated until agreements satisfactory to each department were
reached. Frequent apparent impasses were diplomatically settled with Mr. Roche
when the department heads were convinced that budgetary limitations, over
which neither Mr. Roche nor the Board of Superintendents had any control, pre-
vented purchasing all types of equipment that the shop heads deemed essential.

In the light of the tight budget under which the School Committee was forced
to operate, the obtaining of a tremendous number of suitable boxes was achieved
in a fortunate manner through the help of Mr. William Mistler, whose brother, a
superintendent of a warehouse, gave us gratis our first desperately needed con-
signment of boxes. Our ingenious shop men organized our Technical Course
boys, who, under their able directions, cut the boxes (on power machines) to the
various sizes needed. Thousands of rebuilt boxes (hundreds and hundreds were
bought secondhand from various warehouses) were thus made ready for the ar-
duous task of packing.

The School Committee allowed us to close school a week earlier so that we

could take advantage of the volunteer labor so generously offered by our stu-
dents. Without their technical know-how, skill with tools, and vigorous muscular
strength we would have been hopelessly handicapped. During the last few days
of school the old building resembled a huge express office with thousands of
boxes in dozens of rooms labeled accurately with the number of the box and its
specific destination.

On the day in July when the moving operation began the head master, Mr.
Holland, and three shop men under Mr. Spang were present every minute to
watch carefully and see to it that the boxes went to the correct destinations. The
chief headache, maximum security precautions, was seen to by a prearranged
agreement with Mr. Roche, Mr. Holland, the department heads, and Mr. Mus-
grave, the head custodian at the Memorial Building.

When we opened in September we, of course, faced the tough obstacle of un-
packing and systematizing our inventory of tools and supplies. Unfortunately,
only the drafting and woodworking shops were ready to receive pupils. Not until
early in December were the machine, hot and cold metal and electric shops
ready to function.

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 Although the academic classes were ready to receive pupils, we were
severely handicapped by having no gymnasiums, no lockers, and no lunchroom
operating. At one time we were several days without lights or elevator service
(five floors on one end), and, to add to our miseries, we had no switch-board op-
erating. Our cup of suffering spilled over when our excellent electrically-oper-
ated mimeograph machine broke down. The repair man encouraged us by prom-
ising to be out in about a week. We managed luckily to get along with a miser-
ably inefficient hand-operating machine that printed a smoochy, scarcely legible
"daily directions" sheet for our eighty-odd teachers.

Despite these maddening handicaps our faculty rose to the occasion, dug in,
gritted their teeth, and moved steadily forward. Things began to brighten up a bit
when the bad locker shortage was corrected by our direct appeal to Dr. Gillis.

Finally, after a few months, everything began to brighten up. A new, modern,
and beautifully lighted lunchroom opened up. The two excellent gyms began to
operate.

Most of the machine shops began to function; our laboratory supplies came;
the microscopes arrived. Except for cramped quarters in the chemistry labs (to
be corrected by government grant this summer) our Science Departments were
working full blast.

Right now the following problems need solution:

We need more teacher-parking space. (The police and fire departments

have kindly ignored teachers parking on Townsend and Deckard Streets.)

We need better supervision and inspection by custodial personnel to pre-

vent breaking, entering, and thieving.

PART II

Scholarship: This year's graduating class numbers 340, and of that number
169 are enrolled in the college preparatory course. At the time of this writing;
there have been 128 acceptances for admission to colleges and technical institu-
tions. The total should be considerably greater because we are completing ap-
plications daily.

59
 The colleges and institutions to which our boys have been admitted include
M.I.T., Harvard, Boston College, Holy Cross, Rensselaer, University of
Pennsylvania, Northeastern, Union College, Tufts University, Princeton, Uni-
versity of North Dakota, Boston University, United States Merchant Marine
Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Ohio State University, Carnegie
Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts State Col-
leges, Lowell Technological Institute, Howard University, Wentworth Institute,
and Franklin Technical Institute.

To our knowledge, every boy who applied was admitted to at least one higher
institute to which he sought acceptance.

In a state-wide competition for Engineering Graphic Advanced Placement

held at Northeastern University, our boys won five of the first twelve prizes, in-
cluding first prize. There were also six of our boys who won honorable mention.

In the National Merit Scholarship competition one Technical High boy was a
semifinalist and four received certificates of merit.

Despite the hardships and inconveniences we had to suffer during the first
half of the school year because of alterations going on in the building, the in-
struction, discipline, and student morale were exceedingly high.

Science Fairs: This year in the Boston School Science Fair three of our stu-
dents won second-place honors, and in the State Science Fair held at M.I.T. one
of our students won third prize.

I would like to mention at this time that a boy in the freshman class won the
"Good Citizen Award" sponsored by the Boston Park Department; a sophomore
won a prize in the Record- American Newsboy Contest; another, honorable men-
tion in an essay contest conducted by the Boys' Club of South Boston; another a
fourth prize in the Tilden Essay Contest conducted by the Boys' Club of
Roxbury; and another sophomore won a $100 scholarship in a nationwide con-
test, "Boy of the Year," conducted by the Reader's Digest Foundation.

These, in retrospect, are the most important happenings at Boston Technical

High School over the past year. I would like to say again, in closing, that I hon-
estly believe that we are offering our boys through our curriculum and services a
well-rounded high school education that would be a credit to any public school
system anywhere.

60